Cold and rainy days are sometimes dreary and sometimes put me in a good mood because they remind me of when I lived in London, my favorite city ever! I had the good fortune to meet great people that will always be in my heart … friends from all over the world, each with their own history, eager to learn and to share new experiences with others: we were like a little family, away from home, we helped to each other.

I’m a little nostalgic, it’s true. You’re probably wondering what has all this to do with a recipe?! I’ll explain now: we always met in a coffee shop in our neighborhood at 5:00 pm for tea and a slice of cake, I always ordered the carrots!

Ingredients (for a 26 cm cake tin):

450 ml vegetable oil (corn or sunflower)

400 g flour ‘ 00 ‘

2 teaspoons of baking soda

350 g sugar (550 g)

5 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

525 g carrots

150 g shelled walnuts

For a glaze frosting:

1 egg white

150 g icing sugar

4 drops of lemon juice

If you prefer creamy frosting:

200 g of cream cheese (Philadelphia type)

150 g caster sugar

100 g soft butter

Preheat oven to 170°C. Lightly grease with butter and flour a 26 cm diameter cake tin (you can also use oven baking paper, do not use oil to grease otherwise the cake will ‘ fry ‘)

Peel and wash the carrots. Chop them along with the walnuts in a blender.

Put all the ingredients in a commercial food mixer (if you did not put them in a bowl and use an electric hand mixer), except the chopped carrots and nuts, that you will add to the creamy mixture.

Bake for an hour and a half at 170° (depending on the oven, then after an hour and 20 minutes begin to check the center of the cake with a toothpick to see if it is cooked).

Let cool in the pan for 5/10 minutes and then, gently, transfer the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the glaze by mounting the egg whites with lemon juice and adding powdered sugar a little at a time so that no lumps are formed and that it is a smooth and fluid enough so that you can pour it on the cake. I don’t use much frosting because I do not always like frosting/icing on cakes, mine is more a veil . If you want, you can double the doses or make a glaze with butter and cheese:

To do this whip all ingredients for the cream frosting/icing , with the aid of a spatula, cover the entire cake.